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what it is
Marqeta provides the software and bank connections that let companies issue and run payment cards inside their apps.
how it gets paid
Last year Marqeta made $625M in revenue. Platform processing was the main engine at $344M, or 55% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 23.3% last year on a TTM ~$625M base. A single quarter can show a huge vs. prior year percent vs an easy compare—check the period before you annualize it.
what just happened
Latest quarter revenue in the feed is on the order of ~$160M (ballpark vs $625M TTM). Marqeta still printed a net loss—that is the whole debate.
At a glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
trailing P/E not meaningful — net losses in this feed
-$0.13 fy2024 eps est
~$625M TTM revenue (matches table)
7.4% operating margin
xvary composite: 51/100 — below average
What they do
Marqeta provides the software and bank connections that let companies issue and run payment cards inside their apps.
Scale is the moat. Marqeta processed nearly $300 billion in annual payments volume in 2024 on one cloud platform. If your card program already runs there, moving means rebuilding your payments plumbing inside the app, which is expensive, slow, and annoying.
How they make money
$625M
annual revenue · their business grew +23.3% last year
Platform processing
$344M
Managed By Marqeta
$125M
Powered By Marqeta
$94M
BIN sponsorship services
$38M
Other card program services
$24M
The products that matter
core payment infrastructure
Modern Card Issuing Platform
$109B q4 2025 volume · +36%
It processed a record $109B in Q4 2025, up 36% from a year ago. That's the product the rest of the story sits on.
record volume
higher-value software services
Value-Added Services
2026 gross profit growth target 10–12%
Management is pushing these services to improve mix and margins. A 10–12% gross profit growth target tells you the company needs more than raw volume to make the model work.
margin lever
enterprise customer expansion
New Enterprise Programs
3 fortune 500 wins in 2025
Three Fortune 500 customer wins in 2025 are encouraging, but three deals do not erase concentration risk when one platform relationship still defines the debate.
diversification test
Key numbers
$5M
long-term debt
Long-term debt was just $5M, or 0% of capital. Translation: the balance sheet is not the problem, the income statement is.
7.4%
operating margin
Operating margin is positive but thin; the company still posts net losses after tax and other items in this feed.
$300B
payment volume
Payments volume means dollars flowing across the platform. So what: Marqeta already has scale, which makes the lack of profit harder to excuse.
$625M
ttm revenue
Revenue grew 23.3% vs. prior year to $625M. So what: the demand is real, but growth still has not produced steady earnings.
Financial health
B+
strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 10 / 100
- long-term debt $5M (0% of capital)
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for MQ right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Latest quarter revenue in the feed is on the order of ~$160M (vs $625M TTM), but Marqeta still printed a net loss—that is the whole debate.
Some feeds showed an extreme vs. prior year quarterly growth rate—treat it as period-dependent. EPS: one quarterly line shows about +$0.01 while the score strip still carries about -$0.13 FY EPS (est.)—do not read those as the same number. Gross margin was 70.1% on the quarter in that same narrative: product economics look fine before overhead; company-wide costs still drive net losses in the full-year view.
~$160M
rev (q)
~$0.01
eps (q · one feed)
~-$0.13
FY EPS est.
the number that mattered
70.1% gross margin is the key number because it says the product economics work; the missing piece is converting that into net profit.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
The #1 risk is Cash App concentration on a platform that already moves on the order of ~$300B in annual processing (per this page’s volume line)—scale does not remove partner risk.
med
Customer concentration
A significant share of platform volume comes from a few large partners, with Block's Cash App doing most of the reputational heavy lifting. Losing one major client would hit revenue and the valuation narrative at the same time.
This is the risk behind the 0.4x revenue multiple.
med
Growth deceleration
2026 net revenue growth is guided to 12–14% after 23% core fee growth and 36% Q4 volume growth. If growth keeps stepping down, the market can keep treating MQ like a maturing processor instead of a fintech platform.
Slower top-line momentum narrows the case for multiple expansion.
med
Profitability that barely exists
The company is targeting roughly $10M of gaap net income for 2026. On a business doing more than $600M of revenue by the page's own inputs, that margin is thin enough that a small miss matters.
A business can be high-margin on paper and still fail the earnings test in practice.
med
Leadership transition risk
New leadership gets credit for a fresh strategy and blame for every execution wobble. When the story is already fragile, transition periods rarely get much market patience.
The first full year under the new team will be judged against 12–14% growth and the ~$10M profit target.
If concentration stays high, growth lands below 12–14%, and gaap profit misses the ~$10M target, the stock can remain cheap because the business keeps giving the market a reason.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
2026 gaap profit target
Management is aiming for roughly $10M of gaap net income. Hit it, and the turnaround story gains credibility. Miss it, and the "cheap for a reason" narrative survives.
trend
Whether 12–14% guidance is the floor or the new ceiling
Q4 volume grew 36%, but full-year guidance came in far lower. You want to see whether growth re-accelerates as new programs ramp or keeps drifting down.
risk
Concentration relief from new enterprise wins
Three Fortune 500 wins in 2025 are a start. The next question is whether those logos become material enough to reduce dependence on the biggest clients.
calendar
First full-year read on the new leadership team
CEO Mike Milotich and CFO Patti Kangwankij now own the operating plan. Each earnings report from here is a referendum on their first full-year strategy.
Analyst rankings
risk rank
3
Safer than roughly half the market on balance-sheet risk. In human-speak, solvency is not the main thing trying to hurt you here.
beta
1.55
Expect bigger swings than the index. This stock tends to amplify market moves rather than mute them.
coverage quality
thin
Standardized analyst ranking data is sparse in this snapshot. In human-speak, you are underwriting the business more than you are following a clean consensus scoreboard.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for MQ is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$5
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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